FIG. 1 shows a typical dicing device 101 having a spindle system 103 and a chuck table 105. The spindle system 103 comprises two high-speed rotary shafts 107a, 107b, which are operable to move along a spindle axis 113. The rotary shafts 107a, 107b comprise left and right dicing blades 109a, 109b for dicing a workpiece 111 (for example, a semiconductor wafer) along a direction orthogonal to the spindle axis 113. Alignment cameras 115a, 115b are also mounted on the rotary shafts 107a, 107b. Dicing means that the workpiece 111 is either fully or partially cut by the dicing blades 109a, 109b. Whilst FIG. 1 shows the dicing blades 109a, 109b being arranged facing each other, they may instead be arranged parallel to each other without facing each other.
The chuck table 105 is operable to move along a table axis 116 to facilitate dicing of the workpiece 111 by the dicing blades 109a, 109b. The chuck table 105 additionally defines a workpiece axis 117—the relative position of the workpiece axis 117 and the table axis 116 changes accordingly as the chuck table 105 rotates about a particular point along the table axis 116.
During dicing, the dicing device 101 may first arrange the chuck table 105 such that the workpiece axis 117 is orthogonal to the table axis 116 as shown in FIG. 1. The rotary shafts 107a, 107b and the chuck table 105 then move along the respective spindle axis 113 and the table axis 116 so that dicing is performed along a first direction in relation to the workpiece 111. Once the required dicing is completed along the first direction, the dicing device 101 then rotates the chuck table 105 such that its workpiece axis 117 is now parallel to the table axis 116. The rotary shafts 107a, 107b and the chuck table 105 then move along the respective spindle axis 113 and the table axis 116 as usual, so that dicing is now performed along a second direction in relation to the workpiece 111. Dicing then continues until the required dicing along this second direction is completed.
Specifically, a certain dicing order for dicing the workpiece 111 has to be numerically configured in a sequential fashion. The dicing order typically depends on the workpiece configuration, the workpiece warpage, and the spindle system configuration. The configuring of the dicing order requires inputting the relevant order numbers, the cut line numbers corresponding to cutting lines along the length and width of the workpiece 111, and the appropriate dicing blade for dicing.
Control of the dicing device in respect of configuring the dicing order is often time-consuming and increases the likelihood of errors. In the presence of errors, the configuring of the dicing order would also likely increase due to lengthy debugging time. Furthermore, the configuring of the dicing order may also have be restarted if a change of the cut lines of the dicing order is needed. Thus, it is an object of the present invention to at least ameliorate some of these limitations relating to the configuring of a dicing order for a dicing device.